A string of negative reports coinciding with the start of the fourth quarter has revealed a significant deterioration in the global economy, with world trade slowing, manufacturing contracting, and the number of unemployed workers in the euro zone hitting a record high.

Despite these disastrous figures, stock prices in Europe and the United States rose on Monday, fueled by new central bank injections of cash into the global financial system, an intensification of austerity measures against the working class and expectations of new bank bailouts.

Eurostat, the European Union statistics agency, reported Monday that the unemployment rate in the 17-member euro zone remained at record highs in August, while the ranks of the unemployed grew by 34,000, bringing the total of jobless workers to a new high of 18.2 million. The jobless rate was 11.4 percent, the same as in July. A year ago, the region’s jobless rate was 10.2 percent.

In the 27-nation European Union as a whole, 25.5 million people were out of a job in August. The EU unemployment rate was 10.5 percent.

The unemployment rates of Spain, Greece and Portugal, the countries hardest hit by the euro crisis, all rose. Spain’s unemployment rate reached 25.1 percent, that of Greece hit 24.4 percent, and Portugal’s rose to 15.9 percent.

The unemployment rate for Italy stayed at 10.7 percent and France’s remained at 10.6 percent. Last week, the French government said the number of unemployed had hit a new record of 3 million.

Youth unemployment in the euro zone likewise worsened, hitting 22.8 percent in August, up more than 2 percentage points from a year ago, according to the Eurostat report. In Spain, 52.9 percent of people under 25 were without work.

The jobs crisis in Europe is likely to get even worse. Markit Economics reported Monday that its euro zone purchasing managers’ index (PMI), a key measure of manufacturing output, was 46.1 in August. As a reading below 50 indicates contraction, the August report marked the fourteenth consecutive month of decline in the manufacturing sector.

Today’s employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows 114,000 new jobs in September and a drop in the rate of unemployment from 8.1% to 7.8%. As 114,000 new jobs are not sufficient to stay even with population growth, the drop in the unemployment rate is the result of not counting discouraged workers who are defined away as “not in the labor force.”

According to the BLS, “In September, 2.5 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force.” These individuals “wanted and were available for work,” but “they were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.”

In other words, 2.5 million unemployed Americans were not counted as unemployed.

A truer picture of the dire employment situation is provided by the 600,000 rise over the previous month in involuntary part-time workers. According to the BLS, “These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.”

Turning to the 114,000 new jobs, once again the jobs are concentrated in lowly paid domestic service jobs that cannot be offshored. Manufacturing jobs declined by 16,000.

The Largest Economy In The World Is Imploding Right In Front Of Our EyesMichael Snyder, ContributorSunday, October 7, 2012Activist Post

A devastating economic depression is rapidly spreading across the largest economy in the world. Unemployment is skyrocketing, money is being pulled out of the banks at an astounding rate, bad debts are everywhere and economic activity is slowing down month after month. So who am I talking about?

Not the United States - the economy that I am talking about has a GDP that is more than two trillion dollars larger. It is not China either - the economy that I am talking about is more than twice the size of China. You have probably guessed it by now - the largest economy in the world is the EU economy.

Things in Europe continue to get even worse. Greece and Spain are already experiencing full-blown economic depressions that continue to deepen, and Italy and France are headed down the exact same path that Greece and Spain have gone. Headlines about violent protests and economic despair dominate European newspapers day after day after day. European leaders hold summit meeting after summit meeting, but all of the "solutions" that get announced never seem to fix anything. In fact, the largest economy on the planet continues to implode right in front of our eyes, and the economic shockwave from this implosion is going to be felt to the four corners of the earth.

On Friday, newspapers all over Europe declared that Greece is about to run out of money (again).

The Greek government says that without more aid they will completely run out of cash by the end of November.

Together with draconian austerity measures, home foreclosures, layoffs and the phasing out of social programs, the dramatic hike in gasoline prices constitutes yet another economic mechanism which contributes to the impoverishment of millions of people across the land.

Gasoline prices have skyrocketed overnight in California, with prices at the pump exceeding $5 a gallon.

Across America, the increase in gasoline prices has contributed to compressing purchasing power. It has a devastating impact on suburban families. It compresses the levels of household consumption. It contributes to lowering the standard of living.

The hike in gasoline prices constitutes a mechanism whereby money income is routinely appropriated and transferred from households and consumers into the coffers of oil companies and financial institutions. The price hikes result in windfall corporate profits, while contributing to expanding levels of household debt.

The hikes in fuel and gasoline prices across the US (and Worldwide) also contribute to precipitating small and medium sized businesses into bankruptcy.

Financial Crime in London’s “Parasites Paradise” - The Best Sanctuary Money Can BuyBy Prof. James PetrasOctober 11, 2012Whenever financial swindlers prosper at the expense of investors or a bank jiggers interest rates to bugger their competitors or tax evaders flee fiscal crises or rent gouging petrol monarchies recycle profits or oligarchs pillage economies and drive millions to drink, drugs and destitution they find a suitable secure sanctuary in London. They are wooed and pursued by big British realtors eager to sell them multi-million dollar estates, trophy properties and landmark mansions.

Pompous and pretentious British academics convince them to send their progeny to six digit private schools, promising them that when they graduate they will be speaking English through their nasal cavities, rolling their r’s and mastering the art of eloquent but vacuous elocution. British governments, Labor, Liberal, and Conservative, in the best and most hypocritical legal traditions, fashion the legal loopholes to attract the biggest and wealthiest parasites of the world.

Crime Wave Sweeps City of LondonA veritable crime wave1 has invaded the City of London, where millionaire investment bankers cook the books for billionaire clients and bilk the Treasury to pay their fines and flout the Law. Courses in business ethics are obligatory at Oxford and Cambridge since it has become standard operating procedure for mega-swindlers to plead guilty, to pay a fine and avoid jail and to solemnly promise to never, ever, flout the law… until the next mega-deal.

London has become the center of global financial capital by engaging in long term large scale active collaboration with multi-billion pound drug, arms, people smuggling and sex-slave cartels. The “Brits” specialize in laundering funds from the Mexican, Colombian, Peruvian, Russian, Polish, Czech, Nigerian narco-kings. Albanian white slavers have their ‘private bankers’ at prestigious City banks with a preference for graduates of the London School of Economics. Bi-lingual Greek kleptocrats, lifelong billion dollar tax evaders, fleeing from their pillaged homeland have their favorite real estate brokers, who never engage in any sort of naughty ‘due diligence’ which might uncover improper tax returns. The City Boys with verve and positive initiative, aided and abetted by the hyper-kinetic “Tony” Blair’s open door policy to swindlers and saints of all colors and creeds, welcomed each and every Russian gangster-oligarch-democrat, especially those who paid cash for multi-pound ‘Olde English’ landmark estates’.

Thousands of guar farmers in India are today caught in a vicious cycle fuelled by the spectacular rise in the prices of guar seed and guar gum products during the six months period between October 2011 and March 2012.

The prices of guar seed (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba) and guar gum (extracted from guar seed) rose over 900 percent in the futures markets during this period largely due to speculative buying (coupled with market manipulation through circular trading, cross deals and other market abusive practices) by big traders and non-commercial players. The rally in the prices came to an end when Forward Markets Commission (FMC), the commodity derivatives market regulator, suspended the guar futures trading on March 27, 2012. For a detailed account of speculative feeding frenzy and price rigging practices in guar futures contracts, see Excessive Speculation and Market Manipulation: The Guar Futures Trading Fiasco.

Last year, the guar farmers did not benefit from the price hike as they had sold their produce several weeks before prices began spiraling upward in the commodity futures markets in late October 2011.The EuphoriaAnticipating a similar price hike this year, thousands of farmers in Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab shifted to guar cultivation. Such was the euphoria of last year unprecedented price boom that several farmers in far away states and different agro-climatic regions (such as Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh) also shifted to guar cultivation. Many guar farmers took short-term loans (with higher interest rates) from local moneylenders and financiers to buy seeds at much higher prices than last year. “For the first time, we cultivated guar on all 125 acres of family landholding with the hope of benefitting from higher prices,” said Surendra Kumar Chaudhary, a big farmer from Khajuwala tehsil of Bikaner district (Rajasthan). “We were encouraged by traders, seed companies, processing units and local government officials to go full swing into guar cultivation and reap the benefits from higher prices.” In early 2012, some guar gum processing units in Rajasthan even promised to buy the entire crop at a higher support price.

Wealth consolidation by any means, is a function of capitalism. Even were the Roman Catholic church to operate the global capitalist system with their saintly rules, these rules would invariably make way for consolidation. We, when we are wealthy, cannot help,ourselves as we continually seek more and more.

Workers of the World, Unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains!

One Chart Explains Why Government Debt Is Dragging on the EconomyDan Steinhart, Managing EditorWednesday, October 24, 2012Casey Research

The US has too much debt. This is no longer a controversial statement. Some may believe other problems are more urgent, or that we need to grow our way out rather than slash spending. But even the most spendthrift pundits acknowledge that the debt-to-GDP ratio of the US must decrease if we are to have a stable, prosperous economy.

The private sector has reacted to this over-indebted reality as you would expect: by deleveraging. Since 2008, households and businesses have extinguished of 67% of their debt when measured against GDP. Some paid debt down purposefully, and others defaulted. For our purposes, it doesn't matter how the debt went away. Only that it did.

Meanwhile, the government has done the exact opposite. It has upped its own borrowing by 52% of GDP since 2008.

Is The World Abandoning The U.S. Economy?Brandon Smith, ContributorThursday, October 25, 2012Activist Post

Go to any university, any center of equities trade, any meeting place for financial academia, any fiscal think tank, and they will tell you without the slightest hint of doubt in their eyes that the U.S. economy is essential to the survival of the world.

To even broach the possibility that the U.S. could be dropped or replaced as the central pillar of trade on the planet is greeted with sneers and even anger. But let’s set aside what we think (or what we assume) we know about the American financial juggernaut and consider the sordid history of the money powerhouse myth.

Germany, especially in the decade leading up to WWI, was an industrial giant, rivaling Britain in the production of raw commodities like steel, as well as the banking envy of the world. I’m sure very few economists of the era would have given any credence to the idea that the German foundation would in the near future collapse into hyperinflationary ruin. However, that is exactly what it did. In the span of 10 to 15 years, Germany was completely supplanted as the shining beacon of economic prosperity, never to return to a similar glory.

The British Empire from WWII up until the late 1950s was the primary force in the global trade of oil, and the pound-sterling was dominant in the export and import of raw petroleum between nations. Extreme debt obligations and draining interventions in the Middle East set Britain on the path to currency devaluation, and the loss of its coveted reserve status.CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

A Second Greek Man Has Been Found Dead Since The Emergence Of 'The Lagarde List'Matthew Boesler Oct. 8, 2012

The so-called "Lagarde List" – the name given by the Greek press to a list containing 1,991 names of wealthy, Swiss-bank-account-possessing Greeks who are being investigated for corruption and tax evasion – is causing a major stir in Greece right now.

Since Friday, two men suspected to be on the list have turned up dead in apparent suicides.

Here is what has happened in the past few days.

Last Tuesday, October 3, the "Lagarde List" was passed to Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras from PASOK party leader and former finance minister Evangelos Venizelos.

Technocratic Control Over Greek Gold is Reason For Destruction of EconomySusanne Posel, ContributorSaturday, October 27, 2012Activist Post

Last week, gold fell below $1,700 an ounce. This prompted caution in the metals markets as the Federal Reserve Bank continues its purchases of the mortgage-backed securities. The mainstream media touts this act as an attempt to stimulate the American economy; however, it is nothing less than a land-grab by the technocrats.

Overseas, Germany’s central bank has neglected to audit the country’s estimated 3,400 tons of gold reserves. This resource would be desirable to the technocrats at this critical time – when they are endeavoring to implode fiat currencies in the Euro Zone. Those gold stores are in the hands of the Federal Reserve headed by Ben Bernanke.

It is supposed that the same 3,400 tons of gold (valued at an estimated $190 billion) is currently in the possession of the central bankers in the US, France and England; assuming that this gold is the same gold that was stored at the end of the Cold War.

Lagarde List: 'EU clientalism protects the powerful' The Greek government is now being accused of failing to go after tax dodgers. A journalist who published a list of the country's political and business elite who have Swiss bank accounts now faces a trial after being arrested. For more on the story RT's joined by George Katroungalos, attorney and professor of constitutional law.Source: [link to www.youtube.com]

George Soros Schemes To Control The Future Of GreeceJames Smith, ContributorWednesday, October 31, 2012Activist Post

George Soros discusses the new social initiative of his foundation to create a new atmosphere of solidarity in Greece and help to alleviate the rising tensions in the country.

Soros, a Hungarian-American business magnate, is the chairman of Soros Fund Management and supports progressive-liberal causes. He is known as “The Man Who Broke the Bank of England”.

The Berggruen Institute on Governance is under the direction of Nicolas Berggruen, a jet-setting billionaire who is working tirelessly to bring about the Progressive Movement into the mainstream, to destroy the very fabric of independence and liberty.

The lack of enthusiasm for the latest effort to centralize all banking and monitory regulation within the European Central Bank suggests that the surreal struggle for continental unanimity still resides in the minds of banksters. Elites still seek to perfect the class distinguish of century-old traditions, into a modern version of feudal serfdom. Globalism is the brainchild of the cabal of international banking.

As long as a financial monopoly dominates political institutions, the end result will be more consolidation of the rule of the House of Rothschild. CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

Offshore banking is the elephant in the global economic room which the political and financial elite is trying to hide from the public view. While imposing austerity measures on hard working citizens, they are well aware that astronomical amounts of money are secretly held in offshore banks, thus lost in taxes. Where is that money from? What is it for?

Drug cartels, fraud, tax evasion and money laundering are common answers to those questions. Despite this reality and even in this era of fiscal austerity, the question world leaders avoid is: why is secret banking still allowed? Are they capable of putting a term to it but unwilling to do it because of the benefits it provides? Clearly.

Every once in a while a robber baron will serve as a scapegoat to give a pale illusion of justice to the common man. Although they deserve to be penalized, the corrupt banking system which allowed them to operate remains inviolate and its flaws are never questioned. Offshore banking is not a parallel banking structure. It is at the heart of the banking system. All major banks have offshore subsidiaries.

R. Allen Stanford is one of the white collar criminals serving time for running a “massive Ponzi scheme camouflaged as a bank [Stanford International Bank (SIB)] that sold some $7 billion in self-styled ‘certificates of deposit’ and $1.2 billion in mutual funds”:

He predicted an eventual house of cards collapse. Only its timing remained uncertain. He’s not around to see what won’t be pleasant when it arrives.

It’s too early to know for sure, but monetizing debt/excess money printing may have hit a wall. One economist suggests Bernanke can’t do much more in the mortgage market.CONTINUE: [link to www.globalresearch.ca]

Hours worked and income gains were missing in Friday’s report. Average weekly hours for production and non-supervisory workers declined 0.3%. Weekly manufacturing hours dropped by the same amount. So did average weekly earnings.

Aggregate weekly hours represents total labor input. It edged up a meager 0.1% for private sectors workers. At the same time, it fell that amount for production and non-supervisory ones. Doing so shows weakness, not strength.

Sandy’s impact is also adverse. Expect income and spending to suffer. So will job creation. Most affected homeowners have no flood insurance. During hard times, their ability to rebuild and recoup is hampered.

The eurozone financial crisis is set to deepen following this week’s release of debt projections for the Greek economy. Budget estimates show that instead of peaking at 167 percent of gross domestic product, as predicted last March when the so-called bailout package was put in place, the debt ratio will hit 189 percent this year, rising to 192 percent in 2014 — well above the worst case scenarios of just eight months ago.

With the Greek government expected to effectively run out of money by November 16, the eurozone crisis is certain to be a major issue at the G-20 finance ministers’ meeting beginning in Mexico City on Sunday. The German government’s refusal to make available any more money means that threat of a Greek default and a full-blown financial breakdown is back on the agenda.

On the eve of the meeting, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble insisted that Greece and other highly-indebted members of the eurozone had to continue with austerity programs. In a bid to deflect criticism from other major powers, he said the G-20 should not focus exclusively on the eurozone but should direct attention to the “fiscal cliff” in the US — the massive spending cuts to be initiated after the presidential election — and the mounting debt problems in Japan. “The United States and Japan bear as great a responsibility for (ensuring stability) as we Europeans,” he stated.

The latest figures establish that the austerity program of the “troika” — the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — has created an economic catastrophe, the like of which has not been seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Greek gross domestic product has fallen by a cumulative 21.5 percent since its peak in 2007 and is expected to decline by a further 4.5 percent next year. Such is the extent of the economic contraction that total government revenue from all sources will not even cover the interest rate payments on international loans. If any further “aid” is forthcoming or loan terms are extended, it will be designed to ensure the continued flow of funds to international lenders, but will not alleviate the economic situation in Greece.

The Greek catastrophe is only the sharpest expression of a crisis that is spreading through the eurozone.

its gonna be spectacular here... never mind torontocheck out the mess in vancouver...

canadians have all their wealth(80-90%) tied up in their properties. That they have leveraged to the max 167+% of GDP

2 years of product in the market here to choose from, stuff selling below the assessed value, condo's in the dump...

and we said it could not happen here...

smug little canadians...

the banks here have a $trillion dollars of government/taxpayer backed mortgage guarantees...

watch the detonation of municiple budgets that were built on escalating faked property values... we had 18 months of zero down 40 year mortgages on million dollar properties. we have 5 year renewals here... sub-primed to the wall... purchase costs 11-14 times yearly wages.... $10.00hr wage jobs everywhere, nothing that isn't taxpayer subsidized going on... that will buy a taxpayer guaranteed million dollar home, and pay for it... Yah right

You should smell the fear here...

... it really is different here now...

... stupid smug entitled little yuppies about to get their face wiped with shit... as they realize their not richer than you think...We are all Greeks now, just most are to stupid to realize it.I'llprobably get shot by a bunch of angry entitled property owners for saying this. They believe themselves immune, after all we bought wisely, they are smart they tell me. They have all borrowed money against their homes claimed value...I spent 2 1/2 year's figuring out how they evaluate property tax assessments here... YIKES what a ponzi the real estate government here has created with their fake( outright counterfeit) ASSessment docs. People here take that value as Absolute... after all they paid taxes on it didn't they...I like your thread...

And finally, last month canada lost some 11,000 jobs in the private market but added some 88,000 in the public sector.. employment is as a result up... not!

Silver

position... ...self supporting Commie business man. no tax subsidies. only bums take those......bought at 300,000, and seems I am going to sell for a cool mill+ today. and will re-buy for 300 or less. I have a property in mind. Time to take profit and run.

capitalist,facist,nazi,communist,socialist,militarist,religi​ous nutbars...family nuked,gassed,or robbed by all of them. history never lies but but men who write it do.take the man away you have the truth......grandpa stole first MIG17 in 52..